This Rotten Week: Predicting Hercules, Lucy And And So It Goes Reviews

There have been a fair amount of scenarios presented for how an individual transforms from regular person to superhero type. Lightning strikes, radiation exposure, alien technology, mythical spells... or maybe even a combinations of all of those things. But this might be the first time we’ve seen the "person gets bag of drugs stuffed into their stomach and then given a swift kick to the tummy to unleash all of said drug’s effects on said person’s brain and body." Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a first.

See how Scarlett Johannsson upgrades in the trailer for Lucy below:

This flick looks like a combination of a number of different movies including, but not limited to, The Matrix, Limitless, La Femme Nikita and a whole host of others. I’m not sure that’s necessarily a good thing. It for sure looks interesting, but may run into the problem of biting off more than it can chew. Movies like this tend to succeed by picking a lane and sticking with it. Is this an action movie? A science fiction affair? A commentary on the human condition (or the brain’s full power)? I was confused. Not in a bad way mind you. I just had difficulty following the central point. Is it Lucy’s quest for revenge? A journey of self-discovery to unlock her newly found powers? Man, I don’t think I’ve ever asked so many questions in such a short writeup. Lucy just left me confused. Intrigued and confused.

At one point in his career Luc Besson might have quelled some of my suspicions about the convoluted nature of this film. But his recent work doesn’t bring a lot of confidence with flicks like The Family (29%) and The Lady (33%) sprinkled in a number of writing and producing credits that don’t move the needle too terribly much. I think Lucy slides right in with the much of his directorial work. i.e. not great. An ambitious story with a number of moving parts that don’t all necessarily come together would be my guess. A close but no cigar affair to its core.